Knight in Starlit Armor
by Broken Connection
Summary: Post Chosen. My take on how season seven should have continued after the showdown in Sunnydale.
1. The Fallout

She had thought they were all asleep. With her body huddled against the wall of the bus and her forehead pressed to the cool window, she couldn't see their eyes. Her Slayer hearing detected their even breaths, tricking her into believing that she was the only one awake. They were twenty miles from Los Angeles when she heard it. A soft, husky voice near the back of the bus murmured in what could only be song. Not all asleep, after all. She sighed to herself. As long as there was no noise, she could be anywhere; she could be anyone. The noise drew her back into her own body and trapped her with her own thoughts. She recognized the soft, husky voice as Rona's. Funny that Rona should be able to sing. Willow had spent a good deal of time on the trip making sure the young woman would live at all. _That's Slayer healing for you_, she thought, looking down at her own hand. _The power must be stretched pretty thin between the fourteen of us. It hasn't even started to heal yet. Strange. I can't feel it._ She sighed again, allowing her eyes to slip closed for a mere moment before she forced them open again. As tired as she was, she would not allow herself the indulgence. She needed to focus. If she slept, there would be dreams and faces that she wasn't prepared to handle yet. She could go for a good three more days before she had to sleep. _Gotta love those Slayer benefits_, she thought, shifting in her seat. She winced as the sword wound that pierced her stomach was stretched taut, threatening to re-open. _Or not_, she amended when she could think past the present pain. In that moment, the words Rona was singing drifted to her ears, causing her to cease all movement.

"I can see clearly now; the rain is gone. I can see all obstacles in my way," the girl sang. Her husky voice carried a depth of meaning and emotion that sucker punched its way through Buffy's defenses before she even had time to raise them. "Gone are the dark skies that had me bound. It's gonna be a bright, bright, bright, bright sun-shiny day." Through Buffy's frozen state, a multitude of images shattered the peaceful oblivion of her near-catatonic state. She shivered helplessly as her mother's face passed before her. Tears bit behind her eyes, begging to be released. Buffy was a warrior, but not even she could fight back the overwhelming need to bury her face in her lover's arms and sob. She couldn't fight them back, so she let them go in silence. They slid down her cheeks in a constant torrent, like rain sliding over slick glass. She didn't make a sound as her mother's face turned into Miss Calendar's. Rona finished her song, and Buffy allowed herself a moment of relief, thinking that the girl was finished. She was wrong. Rona's torture had only just begun.

"Welcome to the planet. Welcome to existence." Her voice was growing stronger, more sure with every word. "Everyone's here. Everyone's here. Everybody's watching you now. Everybody waits for you now. What happens next? I dare you to move. I dare you to move. I dare you to lift yourself up off the floor. I dare you to move. I dare you to move like today never happened, today never happened before." Buffy couldn't stop the sobs that shook her entire frame. She tried not to cry out at the pain shoving its way through her entire system. She wanted it to end, but she knew that she deserved it. Rona must've known, too, because her voice never faltered. The images in her mind grew more vivid.

"Spike," she whispered, her fingers reaching out to trace the ghostly image that hovered before her eyes. Her sobs rose in intensity, until her grief was pouring out on an unsuspecting world. Though she saw flashes of the potentials that had died in the final battle, Spike's image never wavered. Her hand, covered in burns, pressed itself flat. She could almost feel his touch again, his cool flesh pressing against her own like glass, even as he burned.

"Welcome to the fallout. Welcome to resistance," Rona sang on, unaware of the older Slayer's pain. "The tension is here between who you are and who you could be. Between how it is and how it should be. Maybe redemption has stories to tell. Maybe forgiveness is right where you fell. Where can you run to escape from yourself? Where you gonna go? Where you gonna go? Salvation is here." Somewhere in the middle of this, the others had roused themselves. The ones who sat at the back of the bus with Rona joined in her singing. Willow heard Buffy's cries, muffled by the fist pressed to her mouth.

"Buffy?" she whispered, kneeling next to her best friend.

"Don't," Buffy said hoarsely, never looking away from the vision of Spike in front of her.

"Buffy," Willow pleaded.

"There's nothing you can say," Buffy whispered. Willow sighed and then acquiesced. Giles, however, was not content to listen to Buffy's quiet tears. He stood abruptly from the seat in front of her and moved to the back of the bus. Faith, tears in her own eyes, sensed a confrontation and stopped the bus on the side of the road. She turned the lights on so that Giles could see. Everyone who was not awake woke at the bright lights shining in their eyes. Xander groaned, threw an arm over his good eye, and tried to go back to sleep. Andrew mimicked him in the seat across the aisle. In the two seconds it took for Giles to reach Rona, the other new Slayers had stopped singing. She continued, oblivious to the tension around her. The volume on her earphones was cranked so high that an earthquake wouldn't have disturb her. Luckily, Giles could be more forceful than an earthquake when he wanted to. He snatched the headphones from her head, grabbed the CD player from her lap, and threw the device as hard as he could at the back wall of the bus. He found grim satisfaction in the crunch it made when it hit the floor. Rona looked at him for a moment, dumbfounded. He stared right back, the anger radiating from his eyes. That pissed her off.

"You know what, old man? I'm a Slayer now. I don't have to take this shit from you," she said arrogantly. She stood up, invading his space with the same intimidating spirit he had just used on her. He glared at her harder, not answering, as he allowed her to hear for the first time the sobs coming from the front of the bus. "Oh," she whispered, her anger deflating. Without a word, he turned his back on her and moved back up the aisle. Silence permeated the air like a blanket. Faith shut off the lights and continued driving. Everyone tried their hardest not to hear Buffy's cries. Suddenly, Buffy stood up.

"Stop the bus," she said quietly. Faith did so immediately.

"Buffy?" Willow questioned. Buffy picked up the knapsack that was all she had left of her possessions. She moved purposefully toward the front of the bus. She reached down and pulled the lever to open the door, then got off. Giles stood and followed her, as did everyone else. "Buffy?" Willow asked again. Buffy turned to face them. "What are you doing?"

"I'm going home," she said, her voice full of a certainty that Willow only heard when she was fully in Slayer mode and prepared to face whatever was threatening her world. Willow recognized it for what it was, and it frightened her.

"What do you mean?" Dawn asked, fear gripping her.

"I mean I can't do this. I'm going home," Buffy repeated.

"You can't do what?" Kennedy asked confused. Buffy just looked at her, wondering why on earth the girl thought she had a say in this conversation.

"You can't do what?" Willow repeated, seeing that Buffy was not going to allow Kennedy any say in this matter.

"I can't sit here on this bus surrounded by all of you pretending like I'm starting on a new page of my life. I can't," she said, shaking her head.

"I don't understand," Dawn said, her eyebrows pulled together.

"Big surprise," Buffy muttered. "You're all deluded," she said allowed.

"Deluded?" Giles asked. She nodded.

"I may be forced to start a new page of my life, but I'm not doing it with any of you," she said. Her mind was clearly made up.

"Why?" Xander asked.

"How do I hate all of you right now? Let me count the ways," she hissed. They backed up a step, surprised at her animosity. "Giles, Wood, you both tried to kill Spike. Dawn, I saved your life, even though you weren't real. I let you stay with me even though you made my life a living hell just so you could kick me out of my own house for doing my job. Willow, Xander, you let her. Faith, Spike stood up for me, and you tried to beat the hell out of him. Some friends I have," she snorted, leaving them speechless as she turned around and started to walk.

"Buffy, wait!" Kennedy called. Willow grabbed her girlfriend's shoulder as she saw Buffy's shoulders tighten in preparation.

"Don't," Willow said softly. Kennedy looked at her, confused. "Let her go."

"Why?" Kennedy asked.

"She just lost the person she loved the most in the world and the only one she trusted anymore. She needs to grieve before she can heal," Willow said wisely.

"It isn't about that, Willow," Buffy tossed over her shoulder. "Just because you tried to destroy the world when you lost Tara doesn't mean I'm going to follow in your footsteps. I'm in the business of stopping apocalypses, not causing them," she said, almost wishing Willow would rise to the bait so that she would have something to lash out at. Willow remained steadfast, though.

"We get that you loved him. You don't have to be a bitch," Rona spat. Buffy almost smiled. Slowly, she turned to regard the new Slayer.

"Say that to my face," she hissed.

"Quit being a bitch," Rona said, slowly and clearly. Buffy's eyes glinted in the moonlight. She moved faster than any of them thought possible. In the blink of an eye, Buffy had Rona pinned against the side of the bus by the neck.

"It's an honor, Rona, really," Buffy said, smiling grimly. "Spike liked it when I was a bitch. It's why he fell in love with me in the first place." The grim smile fell away, and her face hardened. The others drew away fearfully.

"Faith!" Giles said. Faith shook her head.

"This is something Rona needs to know," she said quietly. Giles looked at her for a moment. "Being a Slayer doesn't make you a god." He turned back to the scene before him, watching Rona gasp for air as the girl he loved like a daughter held Rona's life in her hands. Suddenly, Buffy released her grip. Rona fell to the ground, choking. Kennedy ran to her side. Buffy towered over them, even with her diminutive stature.

"Lesson the last. I gave you your power. I made you what you are. And I will take every single last one of you out if I have to," she threatened in an even tone that carried more weight that any shout could have. "Do not **ever** question my authority, my judgment, my decisions, or my words. You may be Chosen, but I am the Chosen One. I am not the first of our kind, but I'm the best." She delivered a powerful roundhouse kick to Kennedy's jaw, sending her spinning to the dust for added measure. "**I** am the Slayer." Her power blazed around her, her hidden strength shining in the force of her stance and the flame in her eyes. She took one last look around, lifted her chin, re-shouldered her knapsack, and then walked away in the night. The shadows obscured her from their eyes in the way that they always would because she was the Slayer and the others were not. They watched her for as long as they could see her, none of them saying a word.

"Good riddance," Rona muttered. Faith moved in just as fast as Buffy had earlier to deliver a swift kick to Rona's chin in the exact place that Buffy had kicked Kennedy only moments before.

"You will not disrespect Buffy in front of me. She's been through more than you can ever imagine," Faith growled. Rona sneered up at Faith.

"Why? Because a vampire died? Not like she's never seen that before," Rona said dismissively, rolling her eyes.

"No," Faith said, her eyes following Buffy's form, picking her out of the shadows where the others could not. "Because the man she loved died." She turned back to look at Rona. "Besides, if it wasn't for her, you wouldn't be alive right now."

"How do you figure?" Rona asked.

"She died to save the world. Twice," Xander said, steel in his voice.

"She killed the man she loved to save the world," Willow added.

"She ruined her high school graduation and blew up her school to save the world," Dawn told her.

"She nearly killed her best friend to save the world," Giles said.

"She let the man she loved die to save the world just yesterday," Faith said, looking down at Rona. "You owe her more than just respect. You owe her your life. If I hear so much as half of a negative word come out of your mouth again regarding Buffy Summers, I won't hesitate to kill you." She turned on her heel and climbed on the bus, sitting at the back so that someone else could take a turn driving. One by one they all followed her back. Giles pulled the bus over again at a motel on the city limits, letting them get a much-needed chance at rest for the first time in ages. He had a feeling he knew exactly where his Slayer was going to go, and he knew that he had to give her time to do what she needed to do before everyone was there to begin harassing her again. He owed her at least that much. If he had known what she was going to say, though, he might have been less than willing to keep the others away. Or perhaps not. One could never tell what Rupert Giles was really thinking.


	2. Redemptions and Reunions

"Buffy?" he gasped.

"Surprised to see me?" she asked, her voice toneless. She did not meet his eyes.

"I am," he admitted.

"Should I go?" she asked. He shook his head. He could tell something was wrong with her just by looking at her.

"Is there...?" he began.

"He's dead," she cut him off sharply. He fell silent. "Spike's dead."

"I'm sorry," he said. It was inadequate. She shrugged, and he felt himself go cold. "Buffy?"

"I have a plan," she said. He waited for her to continue. "Sunnydale doesn't exist anymore. It's a scar on the face of California: a crater. There are maybe twenty of us left. They'll be here soon. I needed to come first. To prepare you. I'm going to the ocean, and I'm taking everything I need." Her tonelessness was grating on his nerves, setting warnings off with bells and clangs.

"Buffy," he said sharply, cutting her off. She looked up for the first time, and he nearly lost his nonexistent breath. He wondered if this was what Willow saw the first time she looked at Buffy after Buffy came back to life. She had cried so much that her tears had turned to blood, streaking down her face in crimson trails of remembered dreams that had died before they were fulfilled. Her eyes were shattered mirrors. Where sparkling emeralds used to shine, now they refracted the light in broken prisms to allow him a glimpse of some of the pain she was harboring.

"So tell me something, Angel. Does hell hurt? Or have I died, and I'm already there?" He moved toward her, and she took a step back in some bizarre parody of dancing. Her eyes roamed vaguely to settle on the floor again, and she continued speaking as though she'd never looked up. "I'm taking his flask of whiskey, one of his shirts, a lighter. Everything I need to see how his last moments felt. Maybe this time I'll actually feel the fire when it burns. I just came to say goodbye." She looked up again, met his eyes, held his gaze for a long moment, then spun on her heel and left. Angel sank into a chair as soon as he could see her no longer. His knees refused to support him.

"I can feel how badly you want to follow her," Cordelia said from his side. He didn't look up.

"She saved me when I wanted to die," he reminded her, looking after the direction Buffy had gone.

"You were being driven mad. She is past the point of madness. She can't grasp anything but death now. And if you save her? She thinks this is hell, Angel. What fate would you be resigning her to? She's done her duty more than any Slayer ever has before her or any Slayer ever will after. She's a legend in her time. They're reserving a place for her among the great immortals. It's time for you to let her go. You can't help her now," she said softly.

"Did she love him?" he asked, looking down at his hands.

"No more than she loved you," Cordelia said gently, placing her hand lightly on his forearm in a gesture of comfort.

"And Spike?" he asked.

"Gave up immortality and wickedness to bask in the light of her love," she told him.

"If she dies?" he pondered aloud.

"He was redeemed," Cordelia said quietly. He turned his head sharply to look at her, but she was no longer there. She reappeared only when he turned away. "I do not make these decisions, Angel."

"Why?" he ground out. "I have suffered with a soul for longer than he has. I died, did I not?" he asked. She smiled gently.

"Your soul was forced upon you twice," she reminded him. "Spike sought a soul of his own free will. You died because you turned evil and the Slayer had to kill you. He died to save the world. He gave up his life and the only true love he had ever known. I do not think you can compare the circumstances, Angel."

"So the Powers that Be think he was better than me?" Angel asked, anger igniting his eyes.

"No," she said simply.

"Then why is he granted redemption?" Angel roared.

"His love was selfless. And may I remind you that you, too, will be given a second chance? He attained his greatest desire. You will achieve yours. His was simply a little more creative than yours. You wish to have a second chance at life. Spike knew that over a hundred years of existence was more than enough for one man. He wanted something more. He wanted to escape the hell he was damned to the day he became a demon," she said.

"And I don't?" he asked, though his voice was calmer.

"Granting your wish of life will allow you a second chance at the heaven you were denied when you accepted the bite of a vampire," Cordelia told him. He nodded, somewhat mollified.

"Will I get to be with Buffy?" he asked quietly.

"Is she the one you want to be with?" Cordelia bit out. "Do you really believe that Buffy Summers is your soul mate?" His gaze stole toward the exit Buffy had taken, forever walking out of the life that he had.

"No," he said quietly.

"It's just as well," Cordelia said, her voice gentle again when she was reassured of his love for her. "She's going to Spike." Angel nodded, sighing.

"I just don't understand why she wants to die," he said, shaking his head. "I mean, she's lost people she loves before."

"Maybe it was just one too many," Cordelia suggested. "Or maybe it was the fact that Spike was supposed to be the one person who would never leave her. She expected to be the one to die first in that relationship. Or maybe, she's just finally too tired to face another day. We'll never know. As soon as it's done, I'll show you their stars," Cordelia promised. He nodded.

"I'd like to think she's watching over me," he said.

"She will be," Cordelia told him. "It's her task now. She gets all the benefits of protecting the innocents without any of the battles. Spike, on the other hand," she laughed. "I doubt he'll be content to stay up there and watch. He's a meddler. He's probably going to get in plenty of trouble for sticking his nose where it doesn't belong." She snorted happily. Angel grinned in spite of himself.

"Yeah. Knowing Spike, he can't even be in heaven without causing trouble," Angel said ruefully. They laughed together lightly.

"May they rest in peace," Cordelia said quietly.

"It's done?" he asked, looking up at the ceiling.

"Nearly time," she said. He nodded. "You want to go outside and watch it happen?"

"Will it be exciting?" he asked.

"Magical," she promised.

"Yeah," he said. "I want to see it." She took his hand and led him toward the door. He couldn't see her, but he could feel her presence. "It won't be much longer, will it?" he asked. She looked back at him, knowing that he wasn't talking about Buffy and Spike anymore.

"No, baby. Not much longer," she whispered. He nodded. They walked out together to stand on the balcony and look up at the night sky. "Ready?" she asked. He nodded. He felt it first. It was a buzzing in his fingertips that slowly spread to encompass his entire body.

"What is that?" he murmured.

"A sign that the universe is about to change," she answered. "The others are here. Good. They'll get a chance to see it, too." She reached down a hand and stopped Giles, Willow, Wood, Xander, Andrew, and the Slayers from taking another step. Gently, she guided their faces toward the heavens.

"Do you guys feel that?" Willow whispered.

"What is it?" Rona demanded, uncomfortable with the sensation.

"It's... higher. Not of our world," Willow answered, shifting slightly and calling on her magic to define for her what her other senses could not distinguish. Cordelia gently nudged Willow's magic back into her body. Willow gasped. "Cordy?" she whispered.

"What?" Xander demanded, thinking he heard Willow say his ex-girlfriend's name.

"Nothing," she said hastily, snapping her mouth shut. She could almost feel Cordelia's laughter. It was different, not harsh and bitter but soft and gentle. The ex-cheerleader had grown up. And she had ascended. A small smile tugged at Willow's mouth. Cordelia smiled back softly, then led Willow's face upwards. The others looked up, too, wondering what the witch was seeing. "I see you," Willow whispered.

"I know," Cordelia answered from her spot at Angel side. "Now look where I want you to. You'll know what you're looking for when you see it," she assured Willow. Willow's gaze fixed unblinkingly on the sky.

"Willow?" Xander questioned.

"Wait," Willow whispered, pointing up. Xander continued watching, confused. A moment of complete and utter stillness stole over the earth like a blanket. Then, a boom echoed from overhead so loudly that they could not hear their own gasps as the stars were pushed aside to create a blank, black emptiness in the sky. And then they felt it. A breeze picked up, carrying on its wings the faintest shimmer of silver. The light grew brighter as it approached where they stood frozen in the night. Gently, the wind circled them as the silver presence slid around them familiarly. The wind drew back, then blew straight at them, sending the shimmer directly through their bodies. There was a collective gasp as they all tried to grasp this new sensation they were introduced to.

"Buffy?" Willow whispered hoarsely. She felt the strangest things: peace, warmth, love. And then came an indefinable knowledge that Willow did not possess of everything that was to come. "Oh, Buffy," she breathed. If she searched her entire life, she knew that would never again feel anything so absolutely... certain. She exhaled, and the shimmer passed, leaving her with a sense of completeness, but also a sense of deep longing.

"Your day will come," came a whisper on the breeze, "and you will join me in the stars." Willow felt tears burning in her eyes. She let them go and nodded. Buffy's shimmer hand brushed her cheek. She held a minute longer, then she drew away. Her wind spun her up, around, and through Angel. Finally, it released her with an upward thrust into the welcoming arms of the night. Willow couldn't tear her eyes away from Buffy's final flight. Then, another presence materialized in the night. Buffy flew toward it.

"Who...?" Giles and Xander began.

"Spike," Willow and Faith answered without looking away. The two shimmers embraced like long lost lovers, and Willow felt a trill of happiness for her friend. Suddenly, other shimmers appeared around the two.

"Chloe," Rona choked out.

"Molly," Amanda said, pointing.

"Eve," said Shannon, trying not to cry.

"Annabelle," Kennedy whispered, looking at the face of the potential that never got to be a Slayer.

"Anya," Xander breathed shakily.

"Tara," Willow said, breaking into tears.

"Joyce," Giles marveled, clearly outlining his Slayer's mother's face.

"Quite the reunion," Andrew said, awe in his voice. Beside him, Dawn was crying.

"That's everyone I love up there," she said.

"You'll go there someday, too," Giles told her without looking away from the sky. "Someday," he repeated. The shimmers that were Buffy and Spike shot up and into the blank space in the sky. The others watched, amazed, as they began to look like themselves again. The shimmer faded to the outsides of their bodies until all anyone could see was Buffy and Spike smiling down on them. Spike wrapped his arms around Buffy's waist. Buffy settled one hand on top of Spike's and curled the other back around Spike's neck. The faces of Joyce, Anya, and Tara glowed around them, looking at the two lovers. The potentials and Slayers settled in their own patch of sky not far away. Suddenly, the silver around all their images began to glow so brightly that their forms were blocked out, and the others had to hide their eyes. When they could see again, they looked up to find that the silver had gathered into tiny dots of stars, forever outlining the shapes of their family and friends in the night sky. The silence stretched for eternity around them.

"She's gone," Giles said finally, closing his eyes against the tears. They came anyway. Faith settled a hand on his shoulder.

"It was time," she told him. She looked back up at the sky with a slight smile on her face. "I always knew you'd go out with a bang, B."


	3. New Beginnings

Though people the world over had seen the amazing display, no one quite knew what the phenomenon was all about. Willow, Faith, and Giles took the new Slayers to Rome to set up a school for Slayers around the world to learn about their predecessors and their powers. Once the Slayers were trained, they were stationed around the world to fight evil as they were born to do. Kennedy, Shannon, Rona, and Amanda stayed at the school to help train new arrivals. Dawn used the money Giles saved for her and went to stay with Angel in Los Angeles, where she attended UCLA. There she met Connor for the first time. The two fell in love and got married a short time later. So it was that Angel's son was re-introduced into the group and given a second chance among them. Their first daughter, Joy Anne, turned out to be a Slayer.

Andrew moved to Spain and died a few months later when he picked a fight with an angry bullfighter. He had made his retribution for the murders he had committed, but no one saw his face in the stars. They assumed he chose a different destiny. Xander surprised them all. He moved to New York and started work on a series of books about his life under the pen name Joss Whedon. The books became a wild success, and a company agreed to do a television program. Everyone sat down to watch together as the story of their hero unfolded on the screen.

"Wow," Willow murmured when it was over.

"Good wow or bad wow?" Xander asked anxiously.

"Good wow," she assured him, kissing his cheek. He smiled sadly.

"It was perfect," Dawn told him. "Where was I, though?"

"Not there yet, remember?" he said gently. "You play a very important part later." She nodded, understanding. He had kept the story real.

"That actress," Faith said. "She was so realistic."

"I think Buffy might've played a small hand in that," Xander said, smiling. The others nodded their agreement. The character had definitely been infused with Buffy's spirit. "You guys will receive complimentary DVD's of all seven seasons of _Buffy the Vampire Slayer_," Xander assured them. However, Giles's time came before the sixth season was out. His face was the first of the group to join Buffy's in the stars. Years went by, and one by one, the others followed. Dawn was the last to go. Seventy years later, she demanded that her deathbed be outside where she could see the stars. In her last moments, she felt the presence of the others around her, urging her forward.

"Told you that you weren't evil," Spike smirked at her.

"I wouldn't go that far," Buffy countered, smiling.

"She's delusional," Dawn heard a voice say. Buffy frowned.

"She's not delusional," Joy argued. "She's going home. I can see Aunt Buffy and Uncle Spike, Mama. And Grandma Joyce. Go ahead," the woman urged. Spike and Buffy each held out a hand to Dawn. She took them, and they guided her into the wind. They flew her all over the world, teaching her to hear when people needed help and how to help them.

When Dawn was safely ensconced in her mother's arms and Buffy and Spike were back where they belonged, Willow said, "Here's to the next journey."

"To the journey!" a thousand voices from across time and space echoed back across the sky. The earth rested below at peace with the knowledge that Slayers around them protected them from the darkness and the darkness itself was protecting them as someone watched them from above. All this because one woman had the courage to face her fears, the strength to fight them, the heart to never give up, and the will power to win. The light of the Slayer, their Knight in Starlit Armor would shine forevermore along with the man she'd chosen to love and the misfit family and friends they'd taken as their own. Together, they conquered the darkness and filled it with the light of their love.


End file.
